Quite a number of Twitter users have been receiving messages asking, “This you???” These messages are accompanied by a short URL, which the recipient will inadvertently click on out of curiosity just to see if the link is really him or her. Little does the Twitter user know that clicking on the link leads one to a phishing website and by signing in, one gives away the log in ID and password of Twitter to an attacker who could then send similar messages to other Twitter users in the contact list of the first victim.

Having access to the log in ID and password of a twitter account would also mean that log in credentials of other websites could be compromised as well since most of us use the same credentials on a multitude of websites.

I wouldn’t say that this phishing attack is exceptionally malicious in nature since when one is directed to a phishing site, there is an option to log in or to close the browser. The worst kinds are those that steal your information as soon as you clicked on it.

Anyway, one cannot be too careful these days, even if the link or information comes from a trusted source and especially if we are not able to see the full URL of the link no thanks to URL shortening services!

Facebook and PayPal announced a strategic alliance which will see PayPal being offered as a payment option for Facebook advertisers and users. Approximately 70% of Facebook users live outside the United States and having a global online payment partner would make it easier for these people to part with their money.

I remember seeing PayPal included as one of the payment options in a game that I play on Facebook not too long ago. It wasn’t available previously but I guess it was just on a small testing scale prior to this announcement.

I have to admit, though, that with the ease of making payments, there had been quite a few times that I almost bought virtual money with my real money. Luckily I came to my senses in time. Phew!!

Following a deluge of complaints from Gmail overs over privacy concerns in Google Buzz, a new Google feature that integrates in Gmail that was launched four days ago, engineers have worked around the clock to redesign Google Buzz following an apology for the compromise it created on our privacy. Some of the changes that we are seeing now is that Google Buzz now no longer automatically connects our public Picasa photo albums and Google Reader list to our Buzz profile.

I haven’t really tried out Buzz myself because I read that as long as we do not post a status message, we will not have a public profile activated, unless we manually create one. I did not and because of all these privacy concerns, but I have noticed from the status messages that my friends posted, that even tweets pre-Buzz appeared in his Buzz.

However, Buzz is not able to repost our Facebook status messages or is it able to let users publish Twitter or Facebook statuses through Buzz.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of ArticlesZoom.org. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a blogger, I realize that one of the best ways to promote my blogs is through article submissions. There are actually many websites or directories that allow this but one has to be very careful and only submit to an article directory of integrity so as to maintain our own reputation.

I just read through the submission guidelines of Articles Zoom and although they are simple enough, users have to comply strictly and repeat offenders will have their account deleted without prior notice and that would be very unfortunate. Articles submitted have to be more than 200 words in length, original, written in English and with substance. Needless to say, articles have to be written in an interesting manner.

Articles Zoom is actually a general article directory that is very simple to use. Mind you, authors do not receive monetary compensation in any way but quality articles receive a lot of attention especially when every article successfully submitted is promoted via twitter through a dedicated Articles Zoom Twitter account.

Imagine the viral effect a well-written article could generate when it is republished multiple times on other websites or blogs. Although all Articles Zoom users are free to do so, they have to leave the credits intact.

Looks like I am not alone when I said that privacy would be compromised by integrating something like Google Buzz to our Gmail accounts. While my concern is at the account level, most web users are concerned that they contact list will be exposed to other people within the same list.

HHmm how come I see people without a problem when it comes to exposing their friendship and other relationships with people who are in the same contact list on Facebook? Isn’t that double standard?

Anyway, in a blog post, Gmail has promised to address this privacy concern in its next update to Buzz and they are even considering making Buzz a standalone website, like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Perhaps that would spur more people to use it seeing that it’s a Google brand.

Anyway, from launch until today, most of my friends are still clueless about Buzz and why they should use it. Only a couple of my friends are testing it out, and that also because they are going to blog about their experience with Google Buzz!

I was surprised to find Google Buzz integrated to my Gmail account last night, OK, I think it was early this morning Malaysian time, but I didn’t bother checking it out until just now.

As mentioned, the whole Buzz feature has been integrated in the Gmail account, opening in a page accessible by clicking on the Buzz link just below the link to our inbox. On the surface, it looks like a pretty neat feature that allows us to update our status messages much like what we are doing on Twitter and Facebook. Yes, Google is late to the game.

Anyway, while this is neat, I don’t think I like this being IN my email account. You see, I sometimes like showing photos of my friends on Facebook to my parents or other family members and I just don’t feel comfortable having my email exposed to them and don’t like the thought of them going through my email just because I want to show them a photo or two.

And you know, with multiple Gmail accounts for different purposes, it is going to be pretty tough following people with all the logging in and out!

In line with Yahoo!’s new policy to let go of web businesses that are outside of their core focus i.e. news, entertainment and communications, the company will be selling their online job board, HotJobs, to Monster. Yahoo! acquired HotJobs for $439 million approximately eight years ago but is selling it to Monster Worldwide Inc. for $225 million only.

The world has been struggling with a recession since 2008 that saw many people losing their jobs. I would think that this is a good time to revive an online job board like HotJobs. It is an old brand and would not have difficulty in gaining trust from online job seekers but at the same time, large corporations have found an easier and cheaper way to fill positions in their workforce by utilizing social networks.

It’s quite sad, you know, seeing how Yahoo! is losing chucks on investment from their sell-off or closure of other web entities but I guess they know their business better than anyone else. I personally hope that I do not have to use any of these online job boards to look for a job any time soon!